Coaxial cables are often used as a cable (electrical wire) suitable for transmission of high frequency signals. As shown in FIG. 8, in general, a coaxial cable comprises a signal line Ce including a centrally located inner conductor Ca and an inner insulator Cb which surrounds the inner conductor Ca, a flexible braided outer conductor Cc (or shielding wires) which surrounds the inner insulator Cb, and an outer insulator Cd, which covers the outer conductor Cc.
Coaxial cables C of the above construction are connected to electrical contacts of electrical connectors in various ways such as soldering, welding, or squeezing for insulation displacement. Each of these methods requires separate preparation processes for the inner conductors Ca and for the shielding wires Cc of the coaxial cables prior to the connection of the coaxial cables to the contacts. These redundant processes have been a problem in reducing the assembly cost of connectors for coaxial cables.
For example, the soldering method applied for connecting a coaxial cable C to electrical contacts of a connector involves several processes. As shown in FIG. 9, first, the outer insulator Cd and the inner insulator Cb must be stripped to expose the shielding wires Cc and the inner conductor Ca, respectively. Then, the exposed shielding wires Cc, which is braided in a tubular form, must be bundled into a rope before the inner conductor Ca and the shielding wires Cc are soldered with solder H to the respective contacts T' and T'.
In recent years, electrical connectors have gone through multi-terminalization. As a result, connectors of the above mentioned type are designed with a plurality of contacts and are used for connecting a flat cable which comprises a plurality of coaxial cables. If the above mentioned soldering method is applied for connecting such flat cable to the contacts of an electrical connector, then the number of assembly processes required for the connection will multiply by the number of coaxial cables C used. Another problem is that the characteristics of the coaxial cables in the flat cable are affected by the uneven amount of solder applied to each coaxial cable (i.e., the performance of some coaxial cables are impaired).